The good news is the Phillies claimed relief pitcher Brian Schlitter off waivers from the Yankees. Schlitter was originally drafted by the Phillies but was traded to the Cubs in 2008 for Scott Eyre. In 2010 he spent most of the year at AAA Iowa where his manager was Ryne Sandberg. In January he was claimed by the Yankees but he was designated for assignment this week to make room for Andruw Jones on their roster. With Sandberg now manager of the Ironpigs it wasn’t a big surprise that he would want Schlitter on his team again. Schlitter was 2-1 3.15 with 13 saves at Iowa last year. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that the Phillies had to make room on their 40 man roster for Brian Schlitter. The player they designated for assignment was Drew Carpenter.
noisenation.mlblogs.com 
This isn’t terribly suprising.
Carpenter after not making the big club last year more or less sulked the whole season and probably pitched his way right out of the organization.
If he would have pitched in ’10 the way he did in ’09 he probably gets the call when Moyer goes down and not Kendrick.
To me this is the Phillies first step in removing him from the 40 man roster and from removing him from the organization when he’ll be a FA if not protected after the season.
I’m not surprised either. It will be interesting to see if he accepts an assignment to the Ironpigs if nobody claims him off waivers. Someone could be interested in picking up a 25 year old starting pitcher. With about 25 pitchers in minor league camp, it’s hard to pick 5 starters…. Bump, Worley, Naylor, ?, ?.
Yeah, I wish Drew well if he leaves. At least I felt like we had a chance to win whenever he started for us here in Allentown, but ultimately he was probably nearing his ceiling.
I’ve got Fierebend and Bass in those question mark spots on my card right now (with Anderson in the Duckworth/project role), but I acknowledge that it’s a crap shoot. If nothing else, it will be at least interesting to observe how our new manager does with his pitchers.
That pitching staff could be getting a little deeper in the next day or two as rumors keep surfacing that John Maine is about to sign a minor league deal with the Phillies. The Phillies are said to be one of three teams still in the running for Maine and right now they’re apparently Maine’s top choice. He hopes to finalize a deal with one of those teams by the weekend. Of course the signing of Maine could also be the beginning of the end for Joe Blanton.
Looks now like Maine will be signing with the Rockies. That could be his best option to make a major league roster and pitch for a winning team. His contract will include an opt out clause if he doesn’t make the Rockies’ opening day roster.